Antigny Threshing Festival

A festival of old-time harvests in Antigny

The Antigny Threshing Festival was born in 1995 in this small village of southeastern Vienne, near the Brenne Regional Natural Park. For nearly thirty years, the Battages Antigny association and its committee of a hundred volunteers have revived, each first Sunday of August, the gestures of old harvests: flail threshing, steam machines, vintage harvesters, parades of period tractors. For the 2026 edition, the festival is expected on Sunday 2 August, faithful to tradition.

A living rural heritage event

This is not a simple flea market, nor a classic brocante: it is a true traditional festival where visitors watch full-scale threshing and grain-working demonstrations. The event welcomes 800 to 1,000 visitors a year and mobilises the whole commune, preserving ties between local associations, generations and peasant memory. Around the demonstrations are a producers' market, craft stalls, rural brocante and private sellers offering old farm tools and peasant curiosities.

What to find

• Traditional threshing demonstrations (flails, threshers, steam machines)
• Vintage tractor and farm-machinery parade
• Old farm tools and rural brocante stalls
• Poitou terroir products: cheese, wood-fired bread, charcuterie
• Old trades demonstrations (blacksmith, farrier, cooper, chair-caner)
• Peasant-style catering on site

Antigny, a Montmorillonnais village

Antigny is a small commune of about 450 inhabitants in the Montmorillonnais, between Saint-Savin (UNESCO abbey nearby) and Montmorillon, the City of Writing. It lies in the Gartempe valley, land of forests, ponds and characterful villages. Antigny's Notre-Dame church holds remarkable medieval frescoes. The Threshing Festival is the flagship event of the year.

An intergenerational event

The association's objectives are clear: preserving links between all commune associations, fostering intergenerational relations, and safeguarding rural cultural heritage. Children are often fascinated by the old machines; elders rediscover the harvests of their youth.

Access and setting

Antigny lies 25 km southeast of Chauvigny, 15 km north of Montmorillon, 45 min from Poitiers. The rolling Montmorillonnais landscape along the Gartempe offers a remarkable backdrop. Saint-Savin abbey (10 km) and the beautiful village of Angles-sur-l'Anglin make it easy to extend the visit into a weekend.